One Life
by Shortie-M
Summary: What would you do if you found out you had a short time to live? Easy, you'd live every moment.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey Everyone! This is something I've been playing around with for a while now. I hope you like it. Read and review and let me know if I should keep going!**

Caroline sat in the wooden porch swing, tears slowly slipping down her rosy cheeks as the sun set in the sky. It had only been eight hours, she thought to herself. Eight hours was how long it took for her life to change forever. Eight hours and a sprained ankle, she amended. That was all it took.

 _Caroline sat beside Tyler in matching dark brown leather chairs that squeaked every time she moved, waiting for the doctor to come back into the office. She glanced at Tyler who was speed reading on his tablet to pass the time. Campaigning stopped for no one it seemed. It was silly that he came, taking off work from the Mayor's office, but the doctor had insisted._

 _"_ _I can't believe the Mayor is stepping down," she commented, but Tyler didn't look up._

 _"_ _He's not really stepping down, Care. He's going to run for Governor and he's suggesting me to the council to succeed him."_

 _"_ _Has the committee given him their answer yet?" she asked, glancing around the beige room and noticing the diplomas from the Ivy League universities. She felt the light touch of Tyler's hand in hers._

 _"_ _As soon as I know, you'll know and we'll celebrate."_

 _She smiled as he kissed the diamond ring that sat on her finger. "Think of the party I'll get to plan," she teased, but her face dropped when the doctor lumbered into the room._

 _The white haired man sunk down into this chair across from them with a slight humph before shifting through the files in front of him, organizing and bidding time._

 _"_ _Doctor Minx, what's going on? Did the MRI come back okay?"_

 _The older man took a deep breath, letting it out slowly before his brown, solemn eyes met hers._

 _"_ _It was suspicious that your ankle wasn't healing right. You tripped and sprained your ankle eight weeks ago and it still hasn't healed correctly. Even taking into account your age and your past family history I thought it could still be a possibility." The man shook his head. "I'm sorry, Caroline. I would like to do more tests of course, but we've found cancer."_

 _Everything in her world came to an abrupt halt. It was like she had been on a roller coaster and it just…stopped. Her entire body felt heavy as lead sitting in the chair and even the trees outside the window seemed to pause in their swaying dance. It couldn't be happening, this wasn't her life._

 _"_ _Cancer?" Tyler asked disbelievingly, dropping her hand to lean in toward the doctor._

 _The deep voices around her were a distant buzzing in her ears as she sat in shock. She was only twenty six years old. She never missed a morning jog or even a day of work from being sick. She was healthy. She ate everything organically for God's sake! If she had cancer she would be in pain, right?_

 _"_ _Caroline?" the doctor repeated and she became aware of the two men staring at her. One stared with pity as the other stared with a mixture of disbelief and anger. "Caroline, I know this is hard to hear, as it is for everyone, but we need to talk about your options."_

 _"_ _Options," she croaked, dazed from how fast everything was suddenly speeding up. The buzz in her ears started again, but she could pick out a couple of words. Stage four. Chemotherapy. Comfortable. She looked to Tyler who sat listening to everything the doctor was saying, nodding, but seeming more distressed than she was._

 _Finally after what seemed like hours they left the doctor's office, Caroline's purse close to bursting with pamphlets on how to live with cancer and copies of her test results. The drive back to their new Victorian home was quiet, both distant in their own thoughts. Even when they walked up the wrap around porch and through the front door, Tyler went and poured himself a glass of scotch in silence as she kicked off her two inch red heels. She stared down at the shoes, pristine as ever and thought about picking them up, but stopped herself. What did it matter if her shoes were left out? Usually her irrational tendencies would get the better of her and she'd clean up the shoes or take the papers out of her purse and put them in reading order, but she couldn't muster up enough emotion to care._

 _"_ _What will you do?"_

 _She heard Tyler speak from the big kitchen archway, but couldn't bring herself to answer._

 _He sighed and came to her, taking her limp hand in his. "You need to deal with this, Caroline. This isn't something that will go away."_

 _She nodded and her watery eyes met him. "We'll deal with it." His eyes shifted away and in that moment she knew. They wouldn't deal with it._ She'd _deal with it. Alone. "You're breaking up with me." She meant it more as a question, but she knew. Tyler was a born politician. He was careful with his words and not a word was ever spoken without the utmost care or deliberation._

 _Her hand dropped and he went back into the kitchen, pouring more of the amber liquid into a crystal glass. "I may be campaigning soon and you can't come if you're sick. This isn't something I expected."_

 _She scoffed at his callousness. "I have cancer and you're making yourself to be the victim? I didn't expect this either." She crossed her arms and walked toward him until they were toe to toe. She wanted him to look her in the eyes. "You expected me to be your Jackie O? Is that it? The pretty little figure that stands beside you and makes you look good?" When he didn't say anything she grabbed the bottle of scotch from the counter and lobbed it through the air with every ounce of her anger behind it. The dark green bottle exploded against the white subway tile backsplash she'd painstakingly picked out for the room as she seethed._

 _"_ _What the hell, Caroline," Tyler yelled, looking back and forth from her rage filled eyes and the liquor that coated the wall._

 _"_ _We were engaged," she stated calmly, but her chest heaved as if she'd just sprinted a mile. "You were supposed to promise to love me through sickness and in health."_

 _"_ _Well, I'm glad we found out that wasn't something I could follow through with now rather than later," he spit back fiercely, intentionally trying to hurt her._

 _"_ _Leave," she said lowly, her voice dropping dangerously before she walked away from him and the mess she'd created._

She wiped at her wet cheeks with the sleeve of her sweater, keeping her eyes on the oranges and purples in the sky as Tyler walked out the door. She heard him pause at the door, but he said nothing as he started moving again and making it to his black Audi. The trunk closed with a finality that sent another tear seeping from her eye.

"Take care of yourself."

She wanted to scream and find more things to throw at him, but instead sat still and continued ignoring everything besides the darkening sky in front of her.

oooOooo

A nurse in Loony Tunes scrubs led Caroline through the stark white halls of the cancer wing. It was her first day of chemo and her heart was racing a mile a minute. She'd finally brought herself to read the many pamphlets the doctor had supplied her with, explaining what cancer was and how the different treatments would affect her. She even took to the internet and the forums dedicated to bone cancer sufferers. Perhaps there had been people out there that had it worse than she did, but after the multitude of tests the oncologist had performed, the diagnosis was the same. Bone cancer, stage four and it was spreading. They'd taken biopsies of her liver and lymph nodes and it was confirmed there too. They said chemo would prolong her life. As it stood, she'd only have about six months, but with the help of chemo it could be eight. Two lousy extra months. The doctor had reminded her that those two months would help her get her affairs in order and it would mean more time with her family and friends. It was too bad that she had none of those things.

Her parents had died in a car accident six years before, both only children whose parents had passed away decades ago. After the funeral she'd closed herself off and eventually her friends had stopped calling. It was when she moved to a new town to start over that Tyler had brought life back into her. He'd asked her out multiple times before she'd finally agreed and then he became her world.

"Here we are," the nurse announced brightly and led her through a doorway and into a single windowed room, lined with reclining chairs. The walls had once been painted a happy canary yellow, but had since faded into a putrid mustard.

She glanced around the room, still standing in the doorway as the nurse stood by the blue padded chair that was to be hers for the next five hours. She could feel the sweat start to bead on her temples as she looked around at the three other people in the room who were at some stage of their illness. A couple people in the small room were bald from the chemical treatments while another lay back in his chair, mouth hanging open as he slept. But what they all had in common was the sickly grey or pale white color of their skin and their malnourished looking bodies.

One step back. Two steps back.

"Miss!" the nurse called as Caroline dashed from the room. She didn't know how she'd made her way through the maze of hallways, but was glad when she finally tasted fresh air. She gulped it down as if she'd been drowning, but kept running until she finally reached the parking garage. Once locked away in her car the wracking sobs shook her whole body and she couldn't stop.

"I'm young! This can't be happening! I've done nothing wrong!" Her angry tears were like a river flowing down her cheeks. She hit the steering wheel with her fists, hoping the physical pain would take away her mounting frustration. "Tell me why!" she demanded to the heavens. She didn't know if anything or anyone listened, but she wanted an answer nonetheless.

Finally her sobs calmed and her body felt numb. She thought back to her parents and how they'd probably tell her to fight and keep going. She wondered that if they'd known they were going to die that night if they would have lived any differently. Would they have had that extra milkshake at a diner or would they have traveled somewhere exotic? She always remembered how much her mother had wanted to see the world, but had never gotten the chance. Instead she'd met Caroline's Father and started a family. Caroline still kept the photos from the magazines that she'd found tucked away in her mother's jewelry box after the funeral.

Her grip on the steering wheel tightened and she started the car, knowing what she'd do. She wasn't going to sit in a stuffy room getting poison pumped through her veins only to spend the rest of her life wishing to die from the pain the chemicals would give her. She didn't want to spend her last moments in a hospital bed. She'd do what her mother didn't live long enough to do.


	2. Chapter 2

**Here's chapter 2. I don't think this fic will be as long as my other one, but I hope you like it all the same! Let me know what you think.**

Standing in the bustling terminal was overwhelming and a little intimidating. Caroline had grown up in a small town and then to start her life over, or so she'd thought, she'd moved to a town similar. She rarely came to a big city and she _absolutely_ considered London to be big.

After retrieving her bags from the conveyer belt she drifted with the sea of people, leading her outside. Nothing seemed different as the airport she'd left from, but as the cab driver drove her through the city her mouth was agape at the sights. The architecture was unbelievable in real life. She looked back down at the magazine picture of her mom's that she grasped and then back to her surroundings. _Definitely better_ , she determined with a small smile.

The cool damp air and the sights around her made her forget everything that had happened to her. She wasn't the girl with cancer in that moment. She was the girl on an adventure.

After depositing her bags in the small room of the modest hotel, she took to the streets. Vendors passively peddled their souvenirs as friends strolled down the streets, laughing and having a good time. It made her sad to think about her friends. She knew they thought she'd abandoned them or at the very least thought she didn't care for them anymore when the truth was so much more selfish.

It was getting dark as she wandered around the streets, deep in thought and admiring all London had to offer as she walked. She passed a bar, or pub, she reminded herself, and decided to go inside. It wasn't every day that she could get an authentic British beer.

It wasn't crowded or noisy as the ones she'd passed by, many having people spilling out the doors. This was a regular's bar, she guessed and knew she stood out as almost every head turned in her direction as she made her way to the mahogany bar top.

She looked around at the patrons, slightly uncomfortable since she had never been to a bar by herself before. Although most of the patrons were old men, marginally making her feel better. If one of them tried anything she thought she could definitely take them.

"What can I get you?"

The deep British accent sounded from in front of her and her breath escaped her throat in a loud rush. He was amazing looking. Sandy blonde locks that were starting to curl because of the length, piercing blue eyes that spoke of intelligence, and the plump rose colored lips that played with a toothpick.

She cleared her throat and glanced away, embarrassed as his lips turned up in a knowing smile from her staring for too long. "I'll have a beer."

His eyebrows raised in question. "What kind, Love?"

She opened her mouth to respond, but closed it in thought. She hadn't gotten that far. "A British beer," she finally said determinedly and he let out a breathy laugh before walking away.

She wanted to yell at herself. She was acting like such a dope, kind of how it first began when she'd started dating her high school boyfriend Matt. He was another blonde that made her flustered every time he held her hand or laughed at one of her corny jokes. She'd thought she'd grown out of that school girlish giggling as she'd aged, but she guessed not.

The beer bottle and pilsner glass smacking the table in front of her brought her out of her past.

After the glass was filled the man stayed, waiting for her to taste it. The white froth of the light yellow beer coated her upper lip as she took a quick taste. It wasn't bad, she thought, but heard the bartender laugh.

"Not the kind you like?" he asked.

"It's good," she defended, but his smile widened.

"If you make that face when you like something I'd hate to see it when you don't."

She wanted to stick her tongue out at the man, but instead took a large gulp.

"Well you showed me," he murmured before sauntering towards the other end of the bar to help another customer.

oooOooo

It was official. Caroline was drunk, in a foreign city no less. In the past two hours she'd tried most of the domestic beers and had taken shots of some hard alcohols she'd never heard of.

She determined that if she kept her one eye closed the room would stop rocking back and forth as she leaned heavily against the edge of the bar, staring at the bartender who'd introduced himself as Klaus. He was quite handsome, she admitted to herself as her eyes perused leisurely over his deep set features and down his chest to his…

A tall glass of water had her jolting back in her stool.

"Perhaps we can get you sober enough to know where you're staying."

She smiled sarcastically and took a sip. "Tonight was a day of firsts," she commented, closing her eyes as the cool water rushed down her cottony throat.

He leaned his forearms against the bar top, penetrating her with his stare. "When people say that it usually means they're celebrating something. Usually freedom."

She snorted derisively. "My fiancée broke up with me," she admitted and weakly held up her glass in a salute.

He shook his head. "Sorry to hear that, but if a man left a beautiful woman like you behind then he wasn't worth it. And it just gives the rest of the male population the hope of one day winning you."

She swayed closer with every smooth word he said until she finally blurted out the first thing that came to her head. "I have cancer." She hiccupped, covering her mouth as a laugh escaped. "That's the first time I've admitted it." She looked back into his stormy blue eyes, his expression devoid of the pity she thought she'd find there. "He left me because I'm dying. So I guess…"

"He's a bloody idiot," he blurted, catching her by surprise. "He sounds like an awful human being and if any man was actually worthy of you, he'd be there with you until the end. He'd make every last second you had count."

The silence was deafening between them. This bartender, this man, didn't know her from Eve, but was saying all the right things. She reminded herself that any man who looked as good as he did probably had a book of charms in his back pocket.

Between her sipping her drink and him helping the occasional customer, they talked. He made her laugh until her stomach hurt and she enjoyed the way his eyes would light up when talking about his art. She told him all the places she wanted to visit and all the things she wanted to see as he made suggestions on her quest. She learned of his family, wondering how siblings could fight and love each other so much at the same time.

"I'm an only child."

"No wonder you seem so sane."

She laughed, for once feeling more like herself and not the lonely bitter woman she had become in such a short time. "I always wanted a sister though."

His nose scrunched in mock disgust. "I'll give you mine, but you have to promise you can't give her back." She took another sip of water as he wiped the bar top with a damp towel. "So, what's on the list for tomorrow?"

"The London Eye in the morning, the tower of London mid-morning, Buckingham Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral… What?" she asked as she saw his head start to shake.

"Have you mapped out the bathroom breaks as well?"

She almost raised her hand to smack him.

"Visit Buckingham Palace and St. Paul's in the morning, if you don't have a hangover that is. The morning sun coming through the windows will take your breath, I promise you. The Tower of London isn't much, but of course you'd probably want to see it. Go there after St. Paul's if you'd like, but go to the London Eye around sunset. The colors are magnificent."

"If it doesn't rain," she teased and he rolled his eyes. "I'll think about it."

"So, how long do you plan to stay?" he asked more seriously.

"I'm not sure. I don't have a set date to go home." She didn't mention how she didn't have a home to go home to. The house her and Tyler had bought together was haunted by the ghosts of what they had been. Every room that she'd sat in that had once been filled with excitement and happiness only left her resentful and depressed. When they'd purchased the house she imagined their kids running around the big backyard and maybe playing with a dog. She just always thought it would be a place that she would find comfort. What a nice joke the universe played on her. "I want to see as much as possible here and then maybe go to Ireland or maybe Paris."

"Both good places, but stay here for a while longer," he mumbled when their eyes met. "England has lots to see," he clarified and went back to wiping the wood top clean, his eyes landing on everything else besides her.

Her smile was small. "Maybe."

oooOooo

Tourists milled around the old cathedral, but it didn't take away from the beauty. Klaus had been right. The morning sun that came through the arched windows lit up the inside. It amazed her how beautiful a structure could be. It wasn't the art on the ceilings or the gold that seemed to be everywhere. It was the artful way the architect had planned the building, allowing the light to stream through the windows and light up the whole space. Or how the whispering gallery made you feel like there really was magic left in the world.

Her fingers slid across the dark polished wood of the pews as her mind drifted. Was she doing the right thing? Was she not just sightseeing for her last time, but was she also running away from her problems and perhaps the truth? Shouldn't she be praying to a deity to save her immortal soul? A tear slipped down her cheek, but she dashed it away before anyone could notice as she took a seat in the back of the church, watching as a choir congregated up front.

As angelic sounds echoed throughout the walls of the church, Caroline pondered away. If she wasn't supposed to be out wandering the world, what was she supposed to do with her time? If she sat and did nothing she'd scream. She looked up at the gilded ceiling, as if the beautiful interior would hold all the answers. Perhaps if there was a God he'd want her to be happy. She thought maybe once she'd reach the pearly gates people always seemed to talk about she could tell the gate keeper she had nothing left. Isn't that what you're supposed to do?

She was so caught up in her musings and the comforting sounds around her she hardly noticed the service had ended and that people had begun to leave. She imagined it must have been beautiful and promised herself she'd come back and actually listen next time once her thoughts seemed straightened out.

Glancing around once more Caroline took the stone steps one at a time, carefully dodging the people who were taking family photos. The thought made her sad. She wished her mother could have come with her and maybe they'd be one of the many families smiling and laughing in front of a camera. She wholeheartedly believed that no ever left for good once they were gone. They always seemed to live on in your memories and your heart, but she wanted to share this with someone. She lifted her head, breathing in the crisp London air as a confused smile lit her face, her eyes coming to rest on a familiar figure.

Did she hear music in the background as her eyes met Klaus's? His smirk was contagious as she made her way towards him.

"You look different without a bar covering half of you."

"I thought maybe you'd like some company?" he asked, unsure if he was welcome on her quest.

She paused, stunned that he was actually standing in front of her. "Where to now?" she finally asked with a hesitant smile as his smile grew.


End file.
